Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

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The Blog for Thursday, January 04, 2007

Report: "Florida Failing its Students"

"A day after new Gov. Charlie Crist pledged to make the state's public schools 'not only the best in the country, but the best in the world,' a national report released Wednesday outlined how far Florida falls short of that goal."

Florida ranks 31st among the states in the likelihood that its children will perform well in school and move on to successful lives as adults, according to Education Week newspaper's annual Quality Counts report.

Undereducated parents, low family income and middling school grades are among the factors that undercut a Florida child's chance for success, according to the report. Despite improvements in recent years, the state also ranks 31st in the nation for academic achievement of its students, the report concluded.

Although Florida fourth-graders performed above national averages in reading and math on recent tests, eighth-graders trailed others from across the country. The state also lags in closing the achievement gap between poor and more affluent children, the report found.

"U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney has agreed to pay $5,643 to the U.S. Treasury to cover the cost of a golfing trip he took to Scotland with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

When Feeney reported his trip on congressional-disclosure forms, he said it was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The center issued a statement Wednesday disavowing any connection with the trip, repeating what it told the Orlando Sentinel in 2005.

Poor Tom, he says he claims to be an innocent "dupe" about who paid for the golf junket.

Naomi Seligman Steiner of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the ethics committee should have punished Feeney instead of just letting him pay the amount of the trip.

"It's like he robbed a bank and was just asked to give back the money," she said.

I wonder if this had anything to do with his decision to resolve the matter:

The announcement by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct came just as the new Democratic-controlled Congress was preparing ethics reforms to address the scandals that plagued lawmakers in recent years.

Recall that in "2005, Feeney was labeled one of 'the 13 most corrupt members of Congress' by" Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Feeney's Scotland jaunt broke rules."

With Friends Like Charlie ...

Surely Charlie will get to the bottom of this and fire anyone who may have been involved: "Suspicion ran high yesterday that Rudy Giuliani's lost White House campaign playbook was swiped by aides to Florida's new governor - while the ex-mayor was helping him win election, sources told The Post."

Giuliani's aides were tightlipped about how it disappeared, but said it happened during a private plane ride on the campaign trail for 2006 candidates. They included Florida Gov. Charles Crist.

Florida Education Commissioner John Winn spins a state study on charter schools:

Details in the report, though, leave less room for boasting. Comparative data -- which echo other independent studies -- show that academically, charter schools are more or less comparable to traditional public schools. Slightly more than half of charter schools statewide have received an A or B grade under Florida's accountability grid. And no evidence is presented to support claims that charter schools as a whole have been innovative incubators.

Regrettably, the report -- required by state law -- focuses heavily on promoting charter schools without a realistic evaluation of how to improve them, especially those that don't work. The report also fails to deal with inconsistencies in reporting data to the state about charter schools -- on financial, managerial and academic performance. ...

The tone of the state report, unfortunately, reflects an opinion that appears to prevail among the state's top education leaders under Republican Gov. Jeb Bush (who co-founded Florida's first charter school in Miami): That traditional public schools are a failure and that private entities are better -- even with limited and sometimes no accountability measures. Charters, although publicly financed, are often operated by private entities.

The Orlando Sentinel editorial board: "After calling for the assassination of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on a British documentary, Miami's U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen went into spin control, claiming filmmakers had spliced clips together to get the sound bite. But the only person getting discredited here is Ms. Ros-Lehtinen." "Out of line".

South Florida Clout

"Ensconced in safe seats, Reps. Kendrick Meek and Debbie Wasserman Schultz campaigned hard last fall for fellow Democrats in hope of seizing control of Congress. Now that it has happened, the two South Floridians are in positions of considerable clout." "South Florida retains clout in U.S. House".

The Miami Herald editorial board: "Recent experiments by Radio and TV Martí in buying time on two Miami stations are credible efforts to deliver information to audiences in Cuba. These attempts, however, must prove to be: 1) cost effective and 2) within the bounds of a U.S. anti-propaganda law." "Messages of hope and democracy for Cuba".

Rate Hikes

"A powerful seniors group appears this morning before the Public Service Commission to protest another hurricane-related hike in utility rates." "Seniors speak up about utility hikes".

"Incoming Reps. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, Tim Mahoney of Palm Beach Gardens, and Kathy Castor of Tampa are jointly hosting a reception for friends and family who will be swarming the Capitol for Thursday’s swearing-in ceremonies at the start of the new 110th Congress." "Democratic Togetherness".

Lyons

Tom Lyons: "Insisting on seeing an election probe through to the end always gets a candidate labeled a sore loser these days. It shouldn't. It is up to the declared losers to do it because those nervous winners never will. They want us to see voting machines as infallible and inviolable gifts from the democracy gods rather than electronic devices sold by a for-profit company intent on secrecy." "Voters' reports are still evidence".

Daniel Ruth: "caught up in the rapture of the moment, Crist invoked one of Reagan's more famous references to America representing 'the shining city on the hill.'"

Now, you could make an argument that by mentioning the 40th president, Crist should have been satisfied that he had filled his Reagan quota and moved on to other matters of state.

But no. Instead, the governor noted that if indeed America was the chrome hood ornament to be found at the top of the hill du jour, then surely, "Florida is the shining state on the mountaintop."

In political speechifying, this was one of those wonderful instances of a pol delivering a perfectly swell line that makes absolutely no sense. One could only hope for four more years of this stuff.

Was Crist suggesting that Reagan was full of beans when he waxed poetic about America merely being but a stinking shining city on top of some crummy, inconsequential hill, while Florida is a big, brassy state that serves as the wedding groom at the crest of a huuuuuuge mountain?